Vanessa Garcia – Pelayo Alvarado is a native of Seville, Spain, capital of flamenco culture. She grew up listening to her father’s record productions, her brother compositions and enjoying been around the artists her uncle represented at that time as a manager. At the age of nine, she began studying flamenco with María Magdalena. As Vanessa developed her dancing skills, she went on to learn more from other famous dancers such as: Martín Vargas, Matilde Coral, José Galván and Merche Esmeralda. During the early years of her dancing career, she traveled all over Spain, and worked in TV with some of the most famous Spanish groups and singers of the time. Vanessa also studied ballet and modern jazz for six years.
Since moving to Las Vegas, Vanessa has worked and participated in workshops with Roberto Amaral, Marija Temo, Adela Clara, María Bermúdez, Clara Ramona and Linda Vega. Vanessa not only has participated on workshops but organized some of them and has brought some flamenco talents to Las Vegas.
She has been teaching in Las Vegas making her students to feel the art of flamenco passing on the knowledge, the technique, the passion and the respect she absorbed back in her country.
For the last few years, Vanessa has choreographed the Christmas Dance Festival presented by the Sociedad Cultural Hispana at the Whitney Library (’99,’00,’01,’02). At the Festival, she has also participated as a soloist, or with her group Alhambra. As the founder of this group, she has led its performances at the Charleston Highs Center, the Winchester Theater, the Summerlin Theater for the Performing Arts, UNLV, the House of Blues, C2K at The Venetian ("Beats of Passion" show), Paris, MGM and the Las Vegas Academy of Performing Arts Theater. In addition, Vanessa has had the opportunity to work in Phoenix, San Francisco, and San Diego (with Cristo Cortés, "one of the best flamenco singers in the world" she says) ; not only dancing and singing, but also choreographing every performance that she has been a part of. In year 2003 she attended a well known Flamenco workshops "Flamenco in the Redwoods" organized by La Tania; Vanessa took classes from Belén Maya, a beautiful dancer and person.
Last show Vanessa performed was at Nicolas Horn Theater of Community College with Coral Citron and Fiesta Flamenca, here you can read Hal de Becker's critic.
